The Irascible Professor
SMIrreverent Commentary
on the State of Education in America Today

by Dr. Mark H. Shapiro

"The
test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves." ... ...Logan
Pearsall Smith ...

Commentary
of the Day - January 25, 2006: A Dialogue on the California High
School Exit Exam. Guest commentary by Jo Rupert Behm with a response
from the Irascible Professor.

Thousands of seniors
in California high schools may not receive diplomas in June because they
have not been able to pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).
The law requiring California high school students to pass this test was
established in 1999 to honor a campaign promise of then governor Gray Davis.
The CAHSEE basically consists of an English language arts test and a mathematics
test. The English language arts test includes sections on reading
comprehension and writing. The writing section requires students
to write an essay on a topic that they have not seen previously.
The mathematics test also includes several sections on topics through Algebra
I.

California requires
students to complete more than 220 units to receive a high school diploma.
The majority of these units must be taken in required academic subjects.
The CAHSEE is basically unfair because students who have received passing,
or better than passing, grades in all their required courses, but who have
difficulty with standardized tests such as the CAHSEE will be denied their
high school diplomas. The California High School Exit Exam
is far from a perfect test. For example, the writing segment of the
test requires students to write an essay in longhand on a topic that they
have not seen before. They must do this without access to the usual
computer composition, editing, and research tools that writers ordinarily
use these days. Likewise, the test - for the most part - is an old
fashioned pencil and paper, multiple choice exam. It does not give
students any opportunity to demonstrate any of the technological skills
they may have learned in high school.

The last independent analysis of the CAHSEE found that nearly two-thirds of all the CAHSEE test items had technical flaws such as formatting, readability, alignment, cultural bias, or even more than one correct answer, but these findings have essentially gone unnoticed.

Students who do
not receive a high school diploma because they cannot pass the CAHSEE face
rather bleak prospects. Most employers require a high school diploma
for all but the most menial jobs. Likewise, their opportunities for
any additional education are extremely limited. While students who
do not pass the CAHSEE still are allowed to matriculate at the state's
community colleges, they may find it very difficult to obtain any financial
aid.

A remarkably large
number of California high school students drop out each year. Some
estimate that the number is as high as 60,000 per year. Factoring in results of the September 2005 CAHSEE, just over 116,000
current high school seniors have not passed one or both of the CAHSEE tests.
Many of these are students who have attempted and failed the tests previously,
so it is likely that a fairly large number of these students will fail
again. Thus, some 40 to 50% of the students who entered high school
in 2002 will not receive diplomas.

Many school districts
have decided to forbid those students who have not passed the CAHSEE from
attending graduation ceremonies and other senior events. Instead,
these students will receive attendance certificates by mail.

California school
districts can apply for allocations from a fund of $20 million that has
been set aside by the state to help students pass the CAHSEE. In
addition $44.7 million will be distributed to the 120 Special Education
Local Plan Areas to help disabled students prepare for the tests.
However, three bills that would have provided some alternatives to the
CAHSEE for certain groups of disadvantaged students were vetoed by the
governor at the behest of the State Superintendent of Education, who has
championed the tests from the start.

However, just
this month an agreement was worked out between state education officials
and the legislature to grant a one-year exemption from the CAHSEE for students
with physical, learning, or emotional disabilities. Governor Schwarzenegger
has pledged to sign this bill (SB 517). Nevertheless, advocates for
the disabled as well as advocates for students who are learning English
as a second language continue to press for the elimination of the CAHSEE.
A number of class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of these constituencies.
Anti-CAHSEE activists argue that the grades that a student makes in his
or her classes are more important than the test results; and, that the
CAHSEE is a costly duplication of other California testing efforts such
as the standardized exams that are part of the State Testing and Reporting
(STAR) System.

The IP responds:
First, it is not really the case that the standardized exams that are given
as part of the STAR system duplicate the CAHSEE tests. The STAR exams
are designed to determine how closely the material taught in a given school
aligns with state curriculum guidelines. Not all students are required
to take these tests, and many of the tests cover a rather narrow range
of topics. The CAHSEE tests, on the other hand, are intended to measure
the achievement of the individual student, and they cover a relatively
broad range of academic topics.

In a perfect world,
the IP would agree with Ms. Behm that course grades alone ought to be a
good enough measure of a student's achievement in the required courses.
However, the world of K-12 education in California is far from perfect.
There are many good schools in California that are staffed with competent
and even excellent teachers, where high standards are maintained.
But, there also are many schools that are mediocre or worse. They
often are staffed with inexperienced teachers who receive little support
in the classroom. In many of these schools students are passed from
grade to grade and from course to course without having achieved minimum
competency in the subjects that they have taken. For this reason,
the IP believes that there is a place for standardized tests as part of
the assessment process.

However, the premise
underlying the CAHSEE invites scrutiny. With the transition of the
United States from a manufacturing economy to an information and service
economy, there has been pressure on the high schools to teach a curriculum
that consists mostly of academic courses. The vocational and general
options have disappeared from most high schools in favor of the courses
that presumably will lead students to the college degrees that will allow
them to compete in today's economy. The CAHSEE, with its emphasis
on language and mathematical skills, really is aimed at testing how well
prepared students are for college. The problem, of course, is that
the traditional college or university program is not the best option for
many high school students. Some students just don't have the intellect
needed to cope with the rigors of an academic education. Others have
interests that lie elsewhere. Ideally, high school should help them
acquire the skills that they need to obtain gainful employment in areas
that match their interests.

The community
colleges have attempted to meet the needs of these students through the
development of a wide range of vocational programs leading to the A.A.
degree. While these are excellent programs, too many high school
students who could benefit from them drop out of high school before they
get that far, because they have become either bored or frustrated with
the emphasis on academic courses. Certainly we need to encourage
and nurture those student who want to go on to college; but, the high school
curriculum should be broad enough to meet the needs and match the interests
of all students.

Testing then becomes
a bit more difficult. However, one approach might be to require students
to pass an exam that tests for basic literacy and numeracy at the level
needed for everyday living. Then students could be given the option
of selecting a third standardized exam that tests either more advanced
academic skills or more advanced vocational skills. Students who
pass the basic exam would receive a high school diploma. Students
who passed the more demanding academic or vocational tests (which might
be practical in nature) would receive diplomas that carried a special endorsement.